Simulation allows for practical experience that can not be gained otherwise.

True the simulator is not real and this learning modality has a limit. The fact it is not real is a true advantage. Students can have experience, they would not get otherwise. For example, truly being in charge of the patient and the actual delivery of health care. This situation enhances critical thinking and performance---it is one thing to be on the side line watching and thinking your way through a situation (as most students do currently) and quite another to do this while being in charge. The student will remember his/her struggle and build on it.

Importantly, the student can be repeatedly exposed to the like patients until they have mastered the situation.

Students may see patients in a compressed time frame allowing for the student to experience more patients than they might see in the same time on a floor.

As a student progresses through a clerkship, selective, etc. it is desirable that they see certain patient types. When their actual experience is not providing such, they can come to the Sim Lab and meet a carefully crafted patient that is designed to satisfy those learning objectives.

Additionally, the student can now be exposed to low frequency/high risk situations they would not experience otherwise.

Simulation involves the element of realism. It is more than the device itself. This realism enables an intermediate level of instruction from the book to a real patient. Realism can be heightened as learning advances to approach actual conditions the student encounters with a live patient. Studies show the more real the exercise is, then the greater the learning.

Stepwise learning allows for pauses for instruction while teaching points can be made and expounded upon. The exercises can be structured to progress from simple demonstration to working in real time with performance of procedures. This allows the student to progress build on subsequent experience. This can be adjusted to allow the student to progress at his/her own rate.

Simulation can provide skill acquisition and application of a variety of procedures. The term ‘simulation’ is used to refer to a wide range of training devices from a sophisticated high fidelity human patient simulator to a simple task trainer